Pratt Institute | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Leiah

Class: Sophomore
Major: Communications
Gender: F

High School: Summit High School
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

Sometimes I love Pratt. Sometimes I hate Pratt. Pratt is a mixed-bag, like any other school, and you have to make you're decision based on how you feel most of the time. In regard to art, Pratt rocks. Hardcore. Well, let's start with the bad. In a nutshell, up until sophomore year (which is the extent of my Pratt experience, thus far), the structure is as follows. Freshman year is foundation for the whole school. This means, that (with the exception of a few majors) EVERYONE takes the same classes: Drawing, 3D, Light Color and Design (LCD), as well as art history and English. Studios are 6 hours long. Expect to do homework for at least that amount of time for each. Sophomore year is foundation for your major. This, though it sounds tedious since it contains more required classes, is actually great. It gives us the opportunity to explore and learn about all the majors in our department, which both gives us all the same background and also gives us the opportunity to switch into another major, should we like it better. The rumors are true, Pratt has a million required classes. You don't really get to choose them until your junior year. However, look at all the great things you get to learn! Though the classes require a lot of time and work, if you stick with them you are bound to learn multitudes. I have without fail had skepticism about all of my classes in the first weeks, but as time goes on, no matter how stubborn I am, I learn and I get better. The same will happen for you.

Academic Life

For graduation, we are required to have 2 semesters of English, 5 semesters of art history, 10 liberal arts elective credits, 16 studio arts elective credits, 6 social sciences/philosophy credits, and 6 math/science credits, in addition to our other required studio classes. That is a LOT of work. Intimidating as it sounds, there is room for it in your schedule. At first, all I could do was groan at the thought of these classes, but now, I think of them with relief...to an extent. Right now I am taking 8 classes. 6 of them are studio classes, and 2 are liberal arts classes. Next year I will be taking 3 liberal arts classes. If I had 8 studio classes, I would NEVER sleep again. The liberal classes, surprisingly, provide a break from the constant right brain. Though this still means a lot of work, when it comes to deadlines, liberal arts (though ALL Pratt students complain about them and are constantly talking about how much they hate them) have a beginning and an end. There's no critiquing, re-working, or gallery aspect. It's very black and white, and sometimes that's needed to break up all the color in our schedules. Stressful, yes; worth it in the end, totally.

Student Body

I thought Pratt would be much more culturally diverse than it is. On a visual basis, Pratt is not that diverse. The majority of our campus is made up of Caucasian students. However, there are many many students here from all over the world. There is a comfortable openness about GLBT issues and many students are out of the closet and positively rocking it, which is awesome. One sees many styles on campus: emo, punk, skater kid, gothic, indie, grunge, seldom the preppy but still there, a few athletes, ... they're ALL there. I think Pratt Cats count as part of the student body. Yes. We have cats. Everywhere, cats.